By Sher Kirk, USP Operations Director
Utility Safety Partners, as a communications service between ground disturbers and the owners of critical infrastructure, can play a critical role during emergency events. During events like the Slave Lake fire, 2013 flood, Fort McMurray fires and the current wildfire situation in Northwestern Alberta, USP provided a link between emergency incident commanders and the utilities in the affected areas. During natural disasters, there are a host of first responders and emergency management personnel put in harm’s way. While they focus on controlling the immediate threat, it is critical they preserve existing safety procedures in place. When steps get missed or skipped, things can go sideways fast.
When fighting wildfires, there are many factors and activities that could have a direct impact on utilities, from the obvious burning power poles to the less obvious heavy equipment crossing over a transmission pipeline. Protocols and processes that exist in normal conditions must be preserved in abnormal conditions. If, for example, crews creating a firebreak in front of an advancing fire did not contact USP to notify utility and pipeline crews to protect nearby underground and overhead infrastructure, it would create the potential for a secondary disaster to take place during what is already a chaotic and dangerous situation. Circumventing the normal notification process could lead to some utilities being directly notified by fire crews, but others being in the dark. It is terrifying to imagine first responders being exposed to energized power lines or hit-and-blowing gas lines in addition to the wildfire they are fighting.
We at USP are grateful for the relationships we have built with Alberta’s infrastructure owners and safety stakeholders. Those existing relationships allow us to communicate with key personnel quickly to re-affirm the safest approach to an emergency situation. Our partners also know that if something does need to be adjusted to allow a better flow of information during a crisis, we will be there to make it happen. During the Slave Lake fire, USP and utility owners quickly adopted a process whereby first responders could use the mobile app to identify their location to place an emergency locate request where all street signs had burned down. We staffed more personnel to identify emergency locate requests placed this way to make sure nothing fell through the cracks. This month, we worked with FortisAlberta to find a way for them to place bulk emergency and priority requests before they sent teams into the fire zone to replace hundreds of power poles — allowing evacuees to return home sooner.
Thank you to all of the hard-working utility and pipeline crews, utility locators and emergency responders who always give us their best during difficult times. Thanks also goes to our USP team who find creative solutions to immediate problems and keep the communication flowing. It is cooperative, positive partnerships that we have in place now that lead to the best safety outcomes when disaster strikes.
Image credit Kelly Burke / Government of Alberta